Bargaining Model Takeaways From Limelight Ruling

By Jeffrey KlenkFebruary 9, 2018, 1:10 PM EST

A recent decision involving Limelight Networks confirmed an apparent trend in courts’ acceptance of bargaining theory (based either on Rubinstein or Nash) to model hypothetical negotiations in intellectual property disputes: Such models are fundamentally admissible but their usage must be grounded in the specific facts of the case at hand.

Referencing VirnetX, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that an expert’s use of a so-called Rubinstein bargaining model, while “potentially admissible” as a general proposition, would be excluded for “impermissibly fail[ing]...